Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

Some of my significant successes have involved complex negotiations and drafting of supply agreements with customers such as KFC, Dominos, Hoyts Cinemas and the Australian Open Tennis, as well as negotiations with global businesses such as PepsiCo, and Pepsi-Lipton International for licence agreements which enable Asahi to make and distribute key brands. These were all completed in my role as corporate counsel and head of legal, partnering with the Asahi Lifestyle Beverages division. During 2020 and 2021, over and above my legal role, I was the incident management co-ordinator during the Covid-19 pandemic and was involved in co-ordinating Asahi’s business-wide response to the pandemic. In the past six months, I have moved into a more strategic legal role, partnering with procurement, supply chain, and the strategy team. In that time, I have been the legal lead in an exciting M&A project, which saw the StrangeLove brand of beverages join the Asahi family.

In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

The two critical qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team is communication and trust. Being part a rapid FMCG industry, the ability to communicate efficiently and honestly as a team, has allowed us to develop our ways of working and identity as a legal team, which means that we can function at the pace required to match the business, while still effectively managing risk. Trust is so vital to a high functioning legal team. You must be able to trust that there will be a consistency of messaging and advice from the whole team, enabling you to project a unified front to the business. This protects against people ‘lawyer shopping’ within the team until they get the answer they want. You also need to be able to trust that your team will escalate issues to you in a timely manner, knowing that you have got their back. No-one can be everywhere at once.

What is the biggest risk to your industry, and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

One of the biggest challenges our industry faces is the increased expectation by consumers that major brands source raw materials in a more sustainable way and use environmentally friendly packaging. I partner closely with the business to help navigate legal aspects of our programs relating to sustainability and environment and lead on ensuring the legal requirements and associated risks are effectively managed. One recent example of this is the creation of a streamlined substantiation process which was then implemented by my team across our organisation to enhance legal governance in this area.

What challenges have you overcome to get to the position you are in today?

Aside from missing out on getting straight into my law degree after high school, and again in first year university when I tried to transfer; the biggest challenge I have had to overcome to get to the position that I am in today is that I moved in-house as a very junior lawyer, with only two years post qualification experience. Almost overnight, I had to pivot from being a junior in a law firm, who needed partner sign off on all emails, to being a business facing lawyer being asked to approve soft drink labels for printing and provide advice on the spot in meetings to senior employees. It just so happened that this agile and commercial way of operating was exactly what I had been craving, and I have not looked back since.